ROME (AP) — Aid groups said Saturday they had found the bodies of 11 migrants off the coast of Libya and transferred them to an Italian coast guard ship off the island of Lampedusa, where thousands are heading from North Africa.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders said it had received a call from Sea-Watch, a German humanitarian group that also rescues migrants at sea, and that its rescue ship Geo Barents had found the body after more than nine hours of searching.
The German group said it was unclear whether the migrants were victims of an earlier shipwreck, adding that it had tried to contact the Libyan coast guard to retrieve the bodies but had received no response.
During Saturday’s mission, Sea-Watch crew members also found another body.
“While we cannot determine the causes of this tragedy, people will continue to take dangerous routes in their desperate search for safety. Europe must find safe and legal routes for them,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a post on X.
Ruthless smugglers take lives again: At least five drown in English Channel within hours of Rwanda’s ship interdiction policy being passedhttps://t.co/YAtskqS3Vo
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 23, 2024
MSF’s ship has been ordered to transfer the remaining 165 people rescued during operations in the Mediterranean to the northern port of Genoa, a decision the organisation expressed dissatisfaction with, saying it would result in significant delays in helping the migrants.
Thousands of migrants leaving North African countries are braving the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to escape war and poverty, starting in Libya and trying to reach Europe.
The Central Mediterranean route remains the most dangerous shipping route in the world: more than 3,000 people went missing on this route in 2023, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Human traffickers allegedly admitted to being in contact with migrant taxi NGOhttps://t.co/MUqB7CYqHn
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 16, 2022
